Wolfdog: new horizons
by diesel weasel
Summary: Balto's heart of gold has been turned to stone, will he be destined to be forever lonely and scorned?
1. Chapter 1

**Ok so here is the scoop: after a near death experience with Steele and the gang Balto faked his death and managed to survive from spring to winter, during said winter Balto retrieved the medicine and became the hero of Nome. Wolf quest and wings of change have not and will not happen, this is a whole new timeline because of a decision Jenna made. Perhaps the darkest piece of lit. I have ever typed, please no flames.**

Balto woke up in his trawler with his scrap wool blanket tossed over his body haphazardly. Lately he had been having strange dreams. Sometimes it was about dogs, sometimes wolves, every now and then yellow eyes had appeared in his dreams. Truthfully Balto had not seen him in quite a while and so he made a mental note to be sure to visit him someday if only to catch up on life.

A new energy filled Balto's veins after his morning stretch, Jenna had revealed to him she was pregnant some time ago and now that it was springtime and she was expecting any day now. Had he not had any self-control he would have been running to check up on Jenna, but he knew such good things came in time.

"Good morning Balto, finally up are we?" Boris asked with his arms crossed. Since the dreams began Balto had been sleeping heavier and longer.

"morning Boris, I think I'm going to check up on Jenna, I should also stop by the butcher and see if I can get any scarps for Muk and Luk."

"Good! With the ice gone getting food for themselves is much more difficult. Way to think about others." Boris said with a smirk, Balto had a true heart of gold that Boris had yet to see it's equal.

Balto made his way into town but as he came near he couldn't help but stare at the local totem pole, it seemed to capture his attention for some reason he couldn't explain why. He shook off the feeling and made his way to Jenna's, only to be stopped in his tracks by a terrier running and yipping and barking as fast as he could.

"The stork has landed, I repeat the stork has landed!" the little dog barked and Balto felt his body tense up.

"Jenna!" he exclaimed and made his way to her house running as fast as he could. He rounded her house and made his way into the shed which she had lived in. with his muzzle he pushed the door open and there he found Jenna curled into a ball sleeping off the exhaustion no doubt. He heard noises coming from her, puppy noises.

As quietly as he could he made his way to Jenna and lightly moved her tail out of the way to expose her treasure, five red and white puppies were squirming around each other, he felt a surge of pride into his chest, never before had he been so happy, a second later never before had he felt so betrayed. One pup made his way around, he had a black coat and a white underbelly, his eyelids were black and suddenly dread filled his heart, then anger.

'_When? Why? _'he asked himself, after the serum run Steele still lived in Nome in his masters house but he rarely ventured out mostly because he was afraid of scorn. But when Balto looked back now he remembered when Jenna announced her pregnancy ever since she had a distant worried look to her, at first he shrugged it off as it all being natural, and he was right. Just not in the way he was expecting.

After compiling the evidence he determined this was not a rape case, most likely a one night stand or worst, she had been with Steele ever since.

What now?

One thing was for sure, Jenna did not love him anymore, and Steele must be the father. It seems she had a thing for outcasts he thought grimly. Should he wish her luck? Or does he just move on? Move onto what? Most dogs and people don't even trust him much still anyways. At this point the only people who have seeked out his company was Nikki Kaltag Star and Jenna.

Maybe he could leave, the trio were good friends no doubt but could he Balto who went days without food to pull a sled team home endure living in the same town with his ex-lover? The one who had openly betrayed him? And the memories, good lord the memories. Snowballs and rocks and brooms and pans thrown by humans. The dozens of times Steels teeth sunk into his body. The never ending insults. Was this worth staying for?

No.

He realized now, no one will trust him. He is too different. Not a dog, not a wolf. An unstable hybrid. Willing to turn in a moment's notice. Worse than a stray, worse than even a feral dog. He was a maunder of the forest like his ancestors, but not afraid of humans, he was different, he was dangerous. He knew then no one dog will ever trust him or her. He was done selling his heart at rock bottom prices, he was done fighting for those who didn't care. After all, if enough people keep saying it then it must be true. Fine then, I will be what they always wanted me to be. I can only hope my example will open up some eyes. I hope, I pray.

Balto left Jenna's shed, he went down the main street of Nome, while some people looked at him with awe, and they all gave him a wide berth. He made his way outside of Nome and he couldn't help but stop and take one look back, he realized me might never miss the sight. He continued to the beached boat. He took one look at his home for the past two years and set off at a steady trot.

Boris saw him and left the boat to catch up with him

"Hey, where are you going?" he asked innocently

"I don't know, maybe anchorage for starts."

Boris's jaw dropped for a second hoping he was simply joking then asked "What?"

Balto just looked ahead, due east and mumbled under his breath "never again."

**Um yeah don't worry I have a plan for this and trust me nothing quite like it has been seen by me in fanfiction so please bear with me at let me know what you think, please?**


	2. Chapter 2

To say Boris was upset was an understatement, he was almost livid and he set out to find answers. How could Balto go from near puppy like happiness to what he just saw in under half an hour? As he made his way to town he noticed that the canine population of Nome was gathering at the mill, he made his way inside but he couldn't anything because there were simply too many dogs in his way to see what the commotion was about.

Quite fed up he flew up to the rafters to see who the center of attention was, it turned out Jenna and Steele were the center of attention. Most of the dogs seemed to be shocked by the recent turn of events but they got over it quickly. It still sent chills through their bodies to see a wolf dog hybrid walk up and down the streets. Steele may not be popular, but he was predictable.

Boris eyes just about bugged out of his skull when he saw one of the pups bore resemblance to Steele. No one seemed to take notice of his presence here, until Jenna spotted him up in his perch.

"Oh uh, hello Boris, what brings you here" Jenna asked and she braced herself for his reaction.

"What am I doing here? An hour ago my boy Balto left home as happy as I have ever seen him in my life, then half an hour ago he walks by the boat with a dead serious face and I asked him where he was going and he said anchorage. So it thought I should come here to **FIND OUT WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!**" he roared as he felt his hot Russian blood take over his veins.

Jenna seemed to wince at his words which made him wonder how she would react if he started throttling her "you have to trust me on this Boris, after the serum run Steele has changed, he realized the error of his ways and he was extremely depressed and mentioned suicide a couple of times, I stuck around him to make sure he did nothing foolish; we talked and turns out we had some things in common than one thing led to another and here we are now." Jenna answered truthfully.

She was telling the truth, he could tell. But he wasn't here because Steele turned a new leaf and that meant everything was peachy, Balto had been stabbed in the back and while he may not be a judge or an executioner she would realize the full amount of pain she caused Balto.

"How dare you?" he growled "How dare you lead Balto on for so long? That dog is in so much pain he may never let anyone in again, no one may again see the great dog he is underneath that wolf pelt. I do not know what is going to become the outcome of your poor design making skills but know this; Balto's heart of gold has now been turned into a heart of stone. You may have just turned Balto into the monster that we fear all wolf dogs are. I hope you and Steele live happy lives, because wolves are notorious for their lust for revenge."

With that Boris turned to leave letting everyone ponder the words he just spoke. Before he made it to the exit Steele spoke up.

"Just wondering, do you think there is anything we can do to undo this?" he asked skeptically, he hoped to stay out of this to keep up his three month low profile streak but after a month of isolation he had learned how to swallow his pride.

Boris turned his head to examine the pair of dogs. He thought the question over for five seconds, Balto was in pain now, so much pain no one could help him out. He had to find his own way before he could once again open up to people.

"Pray, pray hard and strong that one day he might once again open up. Pray there is someone out there for him and he finds her." And he left without another word.

/

True to his word Balto left Nome for anchorage and it took him ten days to get there, he left at a trot of five miles an hour and a wolf could keep it up all day, he would go for twenty hours with no stops covering one hundred miles in one day and he slept for four hour before continuing. Only three rabbits were foolish enough to cross his path on his journey and he made short work of them.

Balto stood on a tall hill overlooking the town of anchorage, it was much larger than Nome, which meant it kept the local wolves at least ten miles away and the dogs rarely went further than one hundred yards from the town without their masters. That gave him over three hundred square miles in which the wolves would not bother him as well as the dogs unless they were hunting dogs which he could deal with. Three hundred square miles he could call home.

There was still much work to be done, first he had to find food to get his energy back up then he had to find or make a den for his shelter. Then he had to skirmish the large town and rid himself of the local feral dog packs before they became a problem for him. Foxes probably inhabited the land due to the haven it provided from the wolf packs. They would make nice allies plus extra sets of eyes and ears and noses over areas he wasn't at.

Raccoons could also be allies that could be worth his time looking into. Not to mention he had a lot of scent marking to do. All in all he had several weeks' worth of things he needed to get done before he could settle down. It was perfect. He could only hope he could be kept busy enough to never have enough free time to remember what he left in Nome. Wrapping up his thoughts Balto was about to got to work but he opened his mouth instinctively.

"This is mine."


End file.
